Florida earns a grim distinction: The largest increase in poverty

The Economic Policy Institute reports that although Mississippi and Arkansas have the highest poverty rates in the nation -- 21.9 percent and 18.8 percent respectively -- "Florida saw the largest increase in poverty -- 2.8 percentage points -- over the course of the recession, new Census data shows.

"Poverty was lowest in New Hampshire (8.5%) and Alaska (9.0%), but even in those states at least one in 12 residents lived in poverty."